O’Leary Returns to X-Factor
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Dermot O’Leary is set to return to The X-Factor after his year away hosting Strictly.
He said he was “very flattered to be asked back” and was “dusting off my dance shoes”.
The programme’s boss and overlord, Simon Cowell, said with supposed glee: “Dermot’s back, hooray! And so is his dancing! Welcome home Dermot.”
O’Leary left the X-Factor after “eight wonderful years,” and was replaced by Caroline Flack and 2009 runner-up Olly Murs.
Famed for his weekly dance routines on the opening of the show, and his recent 24-hour dance marathon for Comic Relief, he said “I’m excited to be back. There is nothing more exciting than hosting live TV on a Saturday night. The show is naturally very close to my heart, after having hosted it for eight years.”
Murs and Flack’s joint hostage was met with dwindling viewer numbers, which were regularly beaten by the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.
The opening episode of X-Factor in 2015 lost over one million viewers in comparison to 2014.
X-Factor is also seeing the return of the room auditions, which is a more intimate setting than the stage auditions. The room auditions feature just the cameras, the judges and the contestants; if they impress three judges or more, they go through to the next stage.
X-Factor has managed to propel a number of singers to stardom, even though the runners up often end up making more than the winners, like One Direction and Olly Murs.
The show will return this autumn.
